Darko Rajakovic is only the second European to currently coach basketball in the NBA, but he comes from a long list of coaches who have historically impacted the league with their influence on foreign basketball. As strange as it may sound, Serbia is one of the countries that have contributed the most to sports both on the sidelines of training and on the field.
The 44-year-old, who was named the Raptors’ newest head coach last month, insists on bringing his Euroleague experience to the NBA, and has also borrowed stellar plays from some of the most important Serbian coaches of the past two decades.
From working under Sasa Djordjevic, to sharing the same birthplace as legendary strategist Zeljko Obradovic, Rajakovic seems to have all the wisdom he needs to succeed in Toronto.
Darko Rajakovic brings more Europe to the Toronto Raptors, after borrowing from Sasa Djordjevic’s playbook and mentoring from Zeljko Obradovic # The NBAhttps://t.co/vhZv7Bx9a9
– Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) July 6, 2023
“Europe has a huge impact on the NBA,” he said recently in an interview. “There are more and more NBA coaches, who study, watch and respect the Euroleague and European coaches. I come from Serbia. I have always been close to the ABA, La Liga or Euroleague.
“I’ve always learned from the best coaches. I was looking forward to ‘stealing’ knowledge from them. Whenever I could apply it in working with my team in order to help us, we used all of those things. Not only in attack but also in defence. I will certainly continue to do that now in Toronto”.
Igor Kokoskov’s 2018/19 campaign with the Phoenix franchise was one of the first play-by-play callers from Europe to truly make an impact on the NBA. Rajakovic is convinced he is out to follow in his footsteps and beyond.
“The impressions are slowly gathering,” he said of his first month in Canada. “Each day I have more and more opportunities to get to know the people and how the organization operates, and it is one of the best, if not the best, in the NBA. This is about the structure, the people who work in the franchise, the experience they have, the continuity of success. something to the highest level.”
According to the sources, Spanish coach Jordi Fernandez and Italian coach Sergio Scarillo were among the main candidates for the Raptors position. With this information, there is no doubt that the Toronto club was looking for European influence on its game.
The process was long. There were different parts of the interview and the conversation,” Rajakovic recalls of his first conversations with the club. “Everything was organized from early morning until late evening. We had discussions regarding the team and my offensive and defensive philosophy.”
Rajakovic recalled all the steps he had to take in his career to finally land a head coaching job in the NBA.
It took the Serbian coach 28 years of coaching to finally land a head coaching job in the NBA, including assistant roles with the Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns since 2014.
“After working at Crvena Zvezda, I felt the need to learn and improve. I just wanted to see a different system of work.” “At that moment, the Spanish national team was achieving great results. They had the best domestic league, and they still have it. So it was inspiring for me to try myself in a different environment.”
Before starting in the NBA, he successfully held head coaching jobs with the Tulsa 66ers of League J, as well as coaching Espacio Torrelodones in the Spanish fourth division for five years.
“It turned out to be the right move because I learned a lot of things that prepared me for the G League,” recalls Rajakovic. “First of all, in terms of interpersonal relations, professionalism, approach to games. In Spain I was able to raise the level of basic education that I received in Serbia.